Superhero Children

We've finally been home without visitors for a few weeks and while we miss getting to see family it's nice to get back into a more regular routine. Eleanor is sleep trained again, all we had to do was take away a few favorite toys whenever she would escape from her bed and she quickly came around to the idea of staying in her bed when she was supposed to. However, I feel a bit guilty when I come into her room after a nap and she happily exclaims "you didn't take my blanket!"

And then she goes into Bradley's room to cuddle him and it makes him SO happy

In unrelated news, a lot of Eleanor's imaginative play these days has to do with her toys refusing to take naps or go to bed. These toys also hit each other and say "you huwt me!" and cry and end up protesting in time out. Not that our darling children get to experience time outs for hitting each other ...

Using our words. Don't mess with Eleanor.

Eleanor likes to play house with superheroes. The other day she told me she was playing with Captain America (she was correct, girl knows her superheroes) and she likes to say "Hulk smash!" It's so fun having a boy and a girl, the superheroes play house and Captain America gets sent to time out a lot (by Eleanor) while Bradley's dinosaurs are marauding in Eleanor's princess castle.

Excited to read a superhero book in Patrick's rock n play.

 She really does know who is who. Also, she lives to play in "forbidden" baby gear.

Honestly I want to record most of the things she says now, it's all pretty adorable.

Nathan has been reading the kids a lot of superhero stories before bedtime and I know very little beyond the basics when it comes to superheroes so it took a while before I understood what Bradley was talking about in this video. Turns out that Dormammu is a villain involved in Dr. Strange's back story. Who knew? Not this Mommy.

(Thanks to Aunt Diana for the Nancy Drew books! We are obviously already getting good use out of them)

Eleanor recently discovered that Nathan has blue eyes and this has been the cause of much discussion in the Scott household.

Eleanor: "I have bloo eye! You have bloo eye?"
Daddy: "I do have blue eyes! You have blue eyes too, Eleanor! What color are your eyes, Bradley?"
Bradley: "I want bluuuuuue eyessssssss!"
Mommy: "Brown eyes are pretty. Mommy has brown eyes too!"
Bradley: "Nooooo, I want to trade eyeballs with Daddy."

Confronting my son about not wanting to have brown eyes like Mommy

Helping him in his quest to trade eyeballs with Daddy.

A lesser mother would take offense at a boy who is so dead set against having the same color eyes as her, but he IS a bit obsessed with the color blue. I just hope nobody teaches him about genetics anytime soon so he learns which parent is to blame for his sweet baby browns.

Making his cute face

Bonus cute face

Always a cutie face

Patrick my sweet Patrick is a doll. I don't know if I've mentioned this but we discovered that he has at least one dimple. We get to see it a lot these days, he smiles anytime someone looks at him. He also laughs too, although I'm a little worried that the first time I was able to get laughs out of him was while I was bouncing him around on my leg and singing The Grand Old Duke of York. The boy likes action and adventure already!

Lounging by the pool. He loves swimming, he got to spend a lot of time in the water last week because we went to the pool when it was warm and there was some shade for a little baby boy.

Our pool we go to. Not too shabby! Note the adorable child in pink in the center.

I also have been calling Patrick our little owl lately because he'll turn his head as far away from you as possible in order to watch Bradley and Eleanor when they're around. They are highly entertaining, can't blame a little guy.

Fun to watch them playing wildly with Daddy

This video gets pretty good 30 seconds in, I feel it is a real glimpse into Nathan's current experience as a father.

And the standard: Patrick doing tummy time and watching the rough housing. I predict it will take him about another 4 months before he's trying to get in on the action.

But Bradley takes the cake for being obsessed with his brother. Patrick has a hard time getting to watch Bradley sometimes with all the kisses his big brother will give him.

Eleanor on the other hand ... I asked her if she wanted to play with her little brother and she walked up, swung the toy bar in front of his chair, and then walked off. All without breaking a smile. 

But that's okay, brothers are supposed to have a special bond, right? I couldn't have asked for a more devoted oldest child. By the way, I have it on good account that he can totally take care of Patrick on his own. Go away, Mommy. Go play with Eleanor.

To be fair, Eleanor does like Patrick but he still doesn't do all that much and she's much more into following Bradley around. Bradley is very popular.

Bradley is such an athlete, I don't know how much of this stuff is just natural for a boy but he's sure got it. We were playing in a wading pool on the deck a week or two ago and I tossed a beach ball toward him for him to hit with the water gun "bat" and he swung and connected. He had a pretty reasonable grip on the "bat" and everything.

I tried the same thing with Eleanor and she may have inherited her Mommy's sports skills. Poor thing. I would pay for some coordination for that little girl, I can't believe I had to go out and buy special summer leggings for her that cover her knees because she manages to take a hard fall every time we go outside. Sighhhhhh.

It's just a good thing she looks so cute in her new clothes. Here we are at the park with Bradley's good friend Eli. We were supposed to be sharing our bike with him.

Eli eventually got to ride on it. Bradley had never cared about the bike until his friend wanted to use it.

She is SO cute

However, this little girl is making all of my mommy dreams come true. She helped me bake cookies the other day!

Okay, Bradley helped too. Two little cookie helpers.

She also comes into our bedroom every morning in order to cuddle with me in bed. I kind of adore it.

Nathan adores getting to carry downstairs her majesty's "stuff" afterward. It is still required to accompany her wherever she goes throughout the day.

But Eleanor really made my dreams come true when I was going to go on a solo grocery store trip after dinner last night and she begged to go shopping with me. For one thing, it turns out that shopping with just one child is insanely easy. Also, it helps when that child is happy to be there (Bradley always tells me "we already have food" when I tell him it's time to go get groceries). It probably didn't hurt that I made sure to get her a sample cookie and let her ride in a cool car cart.

Bradley likes shopping when it's Costco. You get samples and we eat giant hot dogs for dinner. This is how we do Costco these days.

Shopping can be so tiring

A different trip to Costco, another tired baby.

Ever since I put Bradley in a coloring time out a couple weeks ago we've been doing more crafts around the Scott house.

The crayon box is a dragon. We were fortunate that the crayons decided to battle it into submission. We're not much for doing any actual coloring.

Eleanor and Bradley are so funny together. I feel very blessed that although they have little fights throughout the day they truly do adore each other and generally do very well playing together.

Joined by their kitty friend.

Evening Mommy cuddles

Cuddles during morning shows

Bath time shenanigans. Eleanor's face lights up whenever she's being an imp. We're in so much trouble.

The kids love Skyping with family. Call us sometime, we're delightful!

And one of us likes to show off by smooching the baby.

The other day I told Eleanor that I had ordered her Halloween costume and this initiated great interest in the idea of dressing up in costumes so I got out Bradley's superman cape which we have used for every Halloween for him so far and Eleanor's red cape that was supposed to sort of be a Little Red Riding Hood cape for her first Halloween. There has been much joy. 

More dress up clothes are currently on order for these fun kids, it's hard to resist this much enthusiasm.

And this is what passes for a dress up "hat" these days. We are in dire need of dress up clothes.

I'm still required to make up stories for the kids on a regular basis. I will do whatever it takes to hear Bradley say the word "hippopotamus" as many times as possible.

Patrick is the sweetest, most mellow baby, and I can say that with some authority after dealing with Eleanor. She was very cute but I could only get her to go to sleep in a baby carrier and she cried for pretty much every car ride until she was about 18 months old. Patrick on the other hand, he'll fall asleep in his swing while I'm getting the older kids ready to leave the house and then wake up when I transfer him to his car seat, smile at me, and then drift back to sleep in the car without making a peep. Is he for real?

Tolerating some very close up pictures

 

He still prefers to be held but can be put in baby seats and swings for extended periods of time without complaint.

 Okay, maybe a small amount of complaint if one is wearing a less than complimentary onesie.


And he lights up whenever he sees Nathan. He'll stare towards him and start kicking with excitement. Nobody gets these faces out of Patrick but his daddy.

Having to share Daddy time with the love starved cat

It's so fun seeing Patrick's personality start to come through. If there's one things our children have in spades, it's personality. I will end this blog on a video of Eleanor singing "Jesus Loves Me" as I'm putting her in bed for her nap. She was asleep within 10 minutes after this video was taken.